Hi both,
Thank you for your kind replies. I am grateful for your thoughts, Gareth, there have been a couple of other things to question the longevity of the car, the subframe mounts look quite rusted to me, it hasn't yet been picked up on an MOT but I question that an observant tester would pass it in a year's time - assuming that it is actually an issue. I also found out in January that Audi don't even sell the CV boots any more - the car has always chewed through them fairly frequently so I have changed them a number of times during my ownership but this time there was apparently no stock anywhere either in the UK or in Germany and no replenishment date so I have taken that as an indication of impending doom in accessing parts. I couldn't find a proper aftermarket one but thankfully found a spare in my garage which got it through this year's MOT.
Rear air spring is leaky, suspension arms are due another replacement, driver's door window regulator isn't right again etc. Nothing that is currently stopping it and all jobs I am comfrotable doing (again) but they need time and parts. I spent a long time rebuilding my previous car (the 306) only to have someone drive into the back of it whilst my wife was driving us home from work. It was written off for a fraction of the amount I had spent on the parts and I am just a bit cautious of spending too much time and money only to have it wasted again.
With my wife's car also being of the same sort of vintage, if not mileage, it just got me thinking about changing it so we aren't without a functioning car as we are in a village.
Dave, I bet the V8 Allroad was a beast - mine is only the 180 diesel but has never lacked power - we took it offroading many years ago and were happily following Defenders around the place.
I will probably get a view on the rust first but, if it is a problem, look at some different versions of the Allroad and maybe just try driving a few more automatics as that seems to be the default now. Probably keeping things cheaper isn't a bad idea.
Thank you,
Andrew